Posts Tagged ‘car boot sale’

Car Boot Sales – The Sellers Guide

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

How often do you clean out a cupboard and find something you don’t need or want anymore?  I find I do it quite a lot these days, and I’ve taken to storing all my odd bits that I no longer want and taking them to a car boot sale to sell on.  There are a few tricks to getting the most out of doing a boot sale, and I thought I’d share what I’ve learnt with you.

First of all visit the boot sale you’re thinking of doing a few times first – get to know what time it really starts and ends because the advertised time isn’t always the time it actually starts!  There’s one near me which advertises to start at 1pm but as a seller you want to be there by 10am and as a buyer 11am generally.

Be prepared!  There are a few essentials I always take with me – partly for comfort and partly because I don’t want to have to spend money when I’m there to make it, and partly just to make things look good.

Here’s my list of essentials:

  • A bottle of juice and a plastic mug.
  • Something to eat (apple, crisps – nothing too messy).
  • Toilet paper – well no one wants to get caught short when they’re caught short!
  • Hand sanitiser – porta loo’s don’t have very good sanitary facilities I find.
  • A table cover (old sheet will do).
  • Sun cream and a cardigan in case it gets too hot or cold.
  • A good size float.
  • A money belt or container to keep the money in.

When you pack your car, keep your bag of essentials at your feet, and put your tables and chairs in LAST.  This way you can get them out first and you don’t have boxes everywhere while you’re setting your table up.

Open a window of the car, and place your money container on the seat in the car where you can reach it but no one else can, and then lock the car!

Smile a lot!  -  Chat to people and be friendly, takes a bit of getting used to sometimes, but you’ll find people generally prefer to buy from someone they like rather than someone who ignores them or frowns at them.

Be ready to negotiate with people – if you’re clearing your house of junk it’s generally better to get 50p for something and sell it than to hold out for £2 and take it home again.

If you’re doing a boot sale as a one off, and you  really don’t want to take much home with you, at the end try talking to another stall holder and seeing if they’d offer you something for what you’ve got left – if they do boot sale’s regularly then they may be interested in this and that way you get a few pounds more and an empty car!

Contributed by Vialdana

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Car Boot Sales – The Buyers Guide

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Car Boot sales are a fun place to have a wander, but there seem to be certain people who are able to go along to them every weekend and then turn up to work talking about all the wonderful bargains they’ve bought.  I don’t know about you, but for a long time I wondered at how they managed it!  I have since then been lucky enough if not to become someone who finds a bargain every time, at least someone who comes home happy with what I’ve bought on a much more regular basis.

The first thing I’d say is be prepared to get up EARLY if you want a bargain!  I know many of the boot sales go on till midday, but the really good stuff has usually gone before 9am so get up and get out there ready to go in when the sale starts!

If you plan on being a while take a snack and a bottle of juice with you, dress for the weather of the day, and take plenty of change.  You don’t want to be wasting money on food and drink, and it’s no good getting a good price for something then finding that you only have a £20 note and the seller’s run out of change!

Now I know a lot of people are really careful about buying electrical items at boot sales, because after all what do you do if you get home and it doesn’t work?  Well the thing is, if most people are careful of it, then good electrical items can often be bought very cheaply because seller’s know you’re taking a chance.  (I bought my last vacuum cleaner – a Dyson DC04 – at a boot sale for just £8 and we’ve had it more than two years now – not the latest model, but a very good bargain!).

Clothes and shoes can look a bit messy when seen at Boot sales, but take a good look at what the seller has, they may have some really good brand name items going for mere pennies, so it’s worth a good rummage.

Ask how much when you’re interested in something – even if it’s got a price stuck to it.  There’s a good chance that the seller would rather sell it for a bit less than the marked price, than take it home again.  If they give you a price, ask if they could do it for a bit less, chance it… you can’t lose anything by asking after all!  If you like several things on a stall, maybe once you’ve negotiated a price for each one separately, ask if they will knock off a bit more if you buy all three.

Despite what I said at the beginning about getting up early for the best bargains, if you stick it out till people are packing up, you can also sometimes pick up some bits for really good prices.  Not everyone who does a boot sale will be there every week, many people just do one or two each summer so they’re likely to let things go at silly prices at the end in order that they don’t have to pack it up and take it home.

Happy bargain hunting!

Contributed by Vialdana

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